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Subject:

Re: Straight and narrow

From:

Julian Vincent <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Engineers and biologists mechanical design list <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 9 Oct 2003 08:03:29 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (78 lines)

Charles Petit wrote:

> One fine point-I believe that the Mini Marcos had a fiberglass body.
> There was a very early Marcos prototype that had an all wood exterior body.
>

Truth can be even stranger than the fiction we remember.
I had thought that the Mini Marcos had a wooden body shell.  It turns
out that Charles is right and that it was gfrp - right from the
beginning as far as I can see.  But . . . a little web-based research
throws up the following:

  http://www.histomobile.com/1/Marcos/1959/Ugly_Duckling.htm?lan=1
Designed by Frank Costin, famous for the Vanwalls and numerous Lotus
sports racing cars, the Xylon was (and still is) better known as the
'Ugly Duckling', due to its uncompromising appearance.
   Built purely as a race car to compete in 750 Motor Club events, the
car was unusual for its wooden chassis, but this gave it a very light
weight and in the hands of Jackie Stewart, Jem Marsh and many others, it
achieved outstanding success.
   Jem races the ex-Stewart car today in FIA and HSCC races and is
always a contender for, at least, class victories.

http://www.histomobile.com/1/Marcos/1964/1800_GT.htm?lan=1
 Unveiled at the 1963 Earls Court racing car show, the GT (all Marcos
cars prior to the Mantis were known purely as the GT, although some
picked up nicknames along the way), was a sensation. At 43 inches at the
roof, this was one of the lowest cars ever produced and its long bonnet
and Kamm tail, although reminiscent of the E-Type and even the Ferrari
GTO, were remarkable for their time, especially for a small manufacturer
like Marcos (Compare the lines with the Austin Cambridge or Vauxhall
Victor of similar vintage!).
   Originally the, once more, wooden chassised car was equipped with a
Volvo engine from the P1800 and had a complex De Dion rear suspension
and heavily sculpted dashboard. However, high cost and limited sales of
early cars, soon saw a movement to a Ford powerplant, a simpler
dashboard and a live rear axle, held in place with a panhard rod.
  In 1969, the cost of producing the wooden chassis and an abiding doubt
in the public's mind about a car with a wooden chassis, led to the
adoption of a steel chassis. Outwardly the car was unchanged and the
performance and handling of the car was also hardly altered.

http://www.histomobile.com/1/Marcos/1966/1500-1600.htm?lan=1
   Marcos first produced its classic 2-seater coupe way back in 1964,
hard to imagine that this basic body-shape is still being produced,
although in much modified form. Marcos took the unusual step in using
laminated plywood for its chassis construction and GRP for the outer
body-panels.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/features/marcos.shtml
Article on Jem Marsh

The last URL - which isn't very informative - at least shows that Jem
Marsh is still around, and could therefore be asked why he chose wood
for the chassis of his car.  Not the first, since many cars in the
vintage and veteran era used wood.  Presumably because it is cheap and
can be machined and formed with the minimum of equipment.  The GN
(precursor of the Frazer-Nash) had a wooden chassis (ash) with metal
plates to reinforce the joints, and I remember reading about one make of
vehicle (early Alvis?) whose wooden chassis developed such flexible
joints that it was characterised as having the torsional rigidity of a
damp bus ticket!  The advantage was that it mitigated the effect of the
usually stiff springing of early cars, but did nothing to keep down the
unsprung weight.

--
Julian FV Vincent                              [log in to unmask]
Professor of Biomimetics                        office 01225 386596
Centre for Biomimetics & Natural Technologies   mobile 07941 933901
Dept of Mechanical Engineering                  fax    01225 386928
The University
BATH  BA2  7AY

http://www.bath.ac.uk/Departments/Eng/biomimetics/

I hate quotations.  Tell me what you know.  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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